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PI probe said to link Mantashe to bidder

There may be light at the end of the tunnel for South Africa and its load-shedding crisis.

The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg is today set to release a judgment on independent power producer DNG Power’s appeal against fellow bidder Turkish company Karpowership, Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and DMR director-general Thabo Mokoena.

DNG head Aldworth Mbalati has accused “Mantashe’s team” of soliciting a bribe from his company after they told him that in order to win the tender “they need to be in the system”. In Mbalati’s affidavit, he said the meeting was held at a private booth at Kream restaurant in Pretoria.

Mokoena has confessed to meeting Mbalati at the said restaurant but denied any wrongdoing. The Star is informed that DNG has attached reports by a private investigator proving the communiqué between Mantashe and Karpowership.

In November the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) granted operating licences to Karpowership SA for three of the country’s ports, and in a statement the regulator said the issuing of generation licences for the seven Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme preferred bidders was based on the available information and analysis conducted on the applications for generation licences by the seven bidders.

In the court papers, DNG maintains that Mbalati was approached by a businessman close to Mantashe and Mokoena. The businessman allegedly also told Mbalati that he should be “assisted by certain undisclosed parties should it (DNG) wish to be a preferred bidder and ultimately be awarded the contract”.

Mantashe has vehemently denied participating in any tender irregularity. Mantashe’s spokesperson, Nathi Shabangu, declined to comment and redirected questions to the department’s media desk, which did not comment at the time of going to print.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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PI probe said to link Mantashe to bidder

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